WandaVision: Agatha’s Mother And Her Connection With Wanda Explained
In the most recent episode of the WandaVision episode 8, we see the story take a step back and veer off into the distant past. The narrative of the story revolves around the characters who had led to the development of the present characters in the MCU and the kind of connection these characters had with the present characters in the WandaVision narrative. WandaVision may not have revealed much about the oncoming plot, but has certainly clarified several origin stories related to the main storyline and narrative.
Please be warned for those who have still not watched episode 8 of the WandaVision television series on Disney+, there are *several spoilers* in the content mentioned ahead.
The episode witnesses the debut of Evanora Harkness played by Kate Forbes and the mother of Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn), she is also shown to have a fascinating connection with Wanda Maximoff. The story trails back to the 1700’s era somewhere in Salem, Massachusetts, which if one remembers the historic events of the ‘Salem witch Trials’ were held. Creating an epic backlog or retcon to the current narrative of the WandaVision arc. In the story Agatha Harkness is heard dressing one particular witch as ‘Mother’, that character is listed as Evanora Harkness in the Marvel Comics Universe to be Agatha Harkness’s witch mother.
The story witnesses Agatha Harkness being sentenced to death at the stake by a coven of the witches, who hold her accountable for practicing magic above her rank and designation within the coven. Agatha seems too weary at first and plays dumb of not know about the accusations that have been laid on her, the same way she has been behaving naïve in the entire WandaVision narrative. On getting orders from Evanora Harkness, who is also the head of the coven, the witches in the coven surround Agatha and start casting the spell and dispel blue colored magic from their hands which latches on to Agatha and she is shown screaming in pain. Then suddenly her scream turns into villainous laughter as slowly the blue-colored magic that had latched on to her starts changing its color to purple which is kind of the color of Agatha’s magic. Eventually, Agatha takes every single witch out of commission, for a final confrontation with her dear lovely mother.
After Agatha Harkness sucks dry every witch of the coven, by draining them of their magic and life energy in the process, she sets a confrontation with her mother. Her mother Evanora Harkness sets with a slightly elevated level when she attacks Agatha. Seeing Agatha not been affected by her magic she turns it up a full notch and that is when we see a blue crown-like headdress made out of pure magical energy appear on top of Evanora’s head, revealing her status as the leader and the strongest witch in their coven. But, even with her full power in the play she is unable to match her daughter’s dark magic, Evanora does startle Agatha for a bit but Agatha regains control of the fight and takes her mother out of commission without the slightest remorse.
It is in this series of events where a link between Evanora Harkness and Wanda Maximoff is found, just like Evanora’s headpiece crown, Wanda is also seen wearing one when she dresses up for Halloween in one of the previous episodes. The costume is a reference to Wanda’s version of the Scarlet Witch, which is confirmed by Agatha later on in the story claiming that at the level at which Wanda had manifested the Hex, she had to be the Scarlet Witch. This also clarifies a major plot or rather an understanding that all-powerful witches can tap into a higher form of their power and when they do a crown piece manifested from the magic of the color of the wielder form over the forehead, thus denouncing them at a completely different level.
A little later into the story, Agatha is seen creating an alternate reality where they are transported back to the episode where Wanda’s twins were born and she saw running to the crib where she finds Agatha hovering over the cribs with a magical noose around the twin’s neck, now I am not certain what Agatha is trying to do here by threatening Wanda with her kids. But it seems like she is trying to get Wanda mad and pushing her to bring out the personality of the Scarlet Witch and eventually leading a trigger to the event of ‘House of M’.